Source: Netflix

The first season of Stranger Things took me by surprise. Literally. My friend introduced me to it and, seven hours later, I was still sitting on the couch. The second season of Strangers Things failed to captivate me in the same way.

But it’s bad for a reason: Netflix is starting to experiment with the data about how people watch TV, not just what they watch. The Chicago episode, the seasonal setting, and the disorienting tonal shifts of the season are prime examples of how new TV shows are being created.

My band, Job Creators, released out latest album, Systems Online, on June 27. We worked to polish six songs that we are really, really proud to share with everyone. If you’re curious, you can listen on Spotify or, if you’re old-fashioned like me, you can buy the music on iTunes by looking up “Job Creators.”

Given that we are an instrumental duo gravitating somewhere in the orbits of trance rock and jazz fusion, I thought I’d take the time to write what each song means and why we think the album’s concept is so integral to the wider culture.

The battle has been going on for years now: traditional publishing vs. self-publishing. For fantasy and sci-fi, romance and young adult, a million different options are available to those brave enough to try.

But good things can happen to good books. Alec Hutson is proof. Hutson, author of the fantasy novel The Crimson Queen (December 2016), decided to self-publish after a frustrating year of trying and waiting and trying some more to get agents to read the book.

In just five months, the book has 800+ ratings on GoodReads. He’s seen spikes of 100+ book sales overnight. And he’s out-earned any advance that agents could promise him.

When my friend gave me a copy of The Crimson Queen, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s hard to find a good fantasy book. Especially in the world of self-publishing. But it was a great book. Far better than the absolutely dreadful Queen of the Tearling, which can be found recommended in New Yorker blogs and National Bestseller lists alike. It’s rated higher, too.

So how did Hutson break though? What was his journey to becoming a self-published author? I recently had an email interview with him to find out.

My first novel, Blest, was published last year in March. It wasn’t traditionally published, but it wasn’t traditionally self-published, either. I worked with Alloy Entertainment to outline and write the book. It’s been an interesting process, because we’re also working with the Powered by Amazon team.

Powered by Amazon takes book marketing to a new level. As a marketer myself, it’s been really interesting to see how the team has promoted Blest. Especially since I’ve been studying how books are being marketed for a few years now.

Math rock is a funny term to define. It’s pretty much accepted that bands like Slint and Don Caballero started it. To me, it’s basically any band that favors rhythm over melody. Usually, they’re instrumental groups. A lot of the time, they’re duos, like Giraffes Giraffes, Hella, or Job Creators (ahem).

The notable exception to me would be Polvo, a band whose thin, cheese-grater sounds were streamlined and smoothed into the hook-heavy, delightful math rock jams of In Prism. The album is a masterful blend of vocals and math rock, especially “Beggar’s Bowl.”

Pure Strength is more dungeon than gym: wet floors, murky puddles, tiny mushrooms, soggy ceilings. Manny washes his face and peers at the red rims of his eyes, seeing the the bright fuzz of his youth in Mexico City, buttercups of houses in favelas full of diesel and sun.